Named after a Russian actress, the 4,000-tonne vessel used to carry 110 passengers on cruises for more than 20 years.

However, in 2010 it was impounded in Newfoundland, Canada in a row over debts and deserted by her unpaid crew.

After two years tied up in port, the decision was taken to tow her to the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean where she would be scrapped.

Forgotten shipwrecks of the Atlantic

These are the forgotten shipwrecks of the Atlantic Ocean dating back to the First World War. The liners were sunk by torpedoes and mines and now lie on the seabed, just off the Irish coast. Among the wrecks are merchant vessels, submarines and ocean liners, with HMS Audacious being the oldest ruin

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Caters News Agency

Among the wrecks are merchant vessels, submarines and ocean liners, with HMS Audacious being the oldest ruin

“This ship is thought to have been taken over by hordes of cannibal rats”

Scientist

But in heavy seas, the tow-line to a tug broke, prompting the Canadian government to send out another ship to drag her far out to sea and release her.

Incredibly, the eerie remains of a ship the same length was recently found washed up on a Californian beach.

Speaking in a new documentary for Science Channel, scientists said: "This ship is thought to have been taken over by hordes of cannibal rats.

Lilpop, Rau & Loewenstein

MISSING: The cruise ship has been lost at sea for three years

"I mean there's nothing else to eat.

"So imagine this giant ship full of these ravenous hordes of cannibal rats appearing on your local beach right where you live.”

There have been several sightings of the ship since its disappearance.

Incredible underwater cities

The idea that an entire city could just vanish beneath the waves is a terrifying thought – and while these lost underwater cities aren’t the mythical Atlantis, that’s exactly what happened to them.

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CEN

The city hidden 130 feet underwater, was once Shi Cheng in China

In 2014 the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency released a statement that Lyubov Orlova was seen around 1,300 nautical miles away from the Irish coast.

And a year later, it was the subject of news reports in Ireland and Iceland, and a caution to smaller ships was been issued.

Last year satellites picked up an unidentified blip off Scotland large enough to be the ship — but search planes found nothing.